(Video) Big tree, little church door…

Every year the Saint John’s community in Collegeville, MN cuts a large evergreen tree from its Arboretum to install in the Great Hall. Students, faculty, staff, monastics, and family members alike have often wondered, “How do you get such a HUGE tree into the church without taking the roof off and dropping it in?!” The answer: you pull it in!

11 thoughts on “(Video) Big tree, little church door…”

Too bad this tree will stand in a monastery that houses liberalism, almost 20 convicted sex offending priests and monks, and a high school that is trading its Catholic identity for the International Baccalaureate program.

Looks like that tree has been growing for many years. Is it just me, or is it selfish to end the life of a huge majestic tree which has been giving people and other creatures joy for decades, so it can spend a month in a building and then be hauled off?

1. It’s a tree.
2. Cut down on private property. (probably replanted)
3. It doesn’t “feel”.
4. It doesn’t “talk”.
5. It doesn’t “think”
6. God gave man dominion over the earth.
7. Trees are not equal to or greater than the worth of humans.
8. Neither are sparrows (other creatures)
9. Care for both, environmental balance is good.
10. Nothing is ever totally lost to God…

During his Angelus audience on December 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II discussed the rich symbolism of the Christmas season, concentrating on the meaning of the Christmas tree that was then on display in St. Peter’s Square.

The Christmas tree, John Paul said, is “an ancient custom that exalts the value of life,” because the evergreen tree remains unchanged through the harshness of winter. When gifts are arranged under the tree, the Pope continued, it becomes a symbol of “the tree of life, a figure of Christ, God’s greatest gift to all men.”

The Holy Father made a point of saying that the gifts exchanged at Christmas should not be purely material and commercial. The “tree of life,” he said, points the way toward an exchange of spiritual goods: of brotherhood and love.

Revelation 22

1 And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God, and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations.

3 And there shall be no curse any more: but the throne of God, and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him.

4 And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads.

This occurs at baptism: and we are hidden in Christ; making it impossible by the same Spirit and Water, the same Water and Blood, to take the eyes and ears of the soul off Christ, except that through serious sin we disinvite Him… I see none of that here in this beautiful tradition. The tree reminds men of the Gift…